San Francisco VA Healthcare System (SFVAHCS) offers a wealth of training options for doctoral interns under the supervision of experienced, licensed psychology staff. We stress general training in major practice areas in an integrative theoretical atmosphere as well as an emphasis on scholarly activity and research. Our internship is affiliated with University of California, San Francisco.
We offer generalist training across all five intern placements however we do offer three tracks for up to 50% of the intern experience: neuropsychology, PTSD treatment, and geropsychology.
Rotation options at SFVAHCS include: Research Placement/Scholarly Project (required); Neuropsychological Assessment; Geropsychology; HIV/Liver, PCMHI, Substance Use Disorders via the Substance Use/PTSD Team or General Addictions Clinics; Behavioral Sleep Medicine; PTSD Treatment Team; Family Therapy Program; General Psych Outpatient Services, Women's Clinic, Severe Mental Illness; Psych Rehab; Inpatient Psychiatry; Primary Care; Group Therapy; and Evidence-based psychotherapies. Seminars and didactic training experiences are built in between SFVAHCS and UCSF.
There are opportunities to develop specialty interests in geropsychology, trauma treatment, substance use disorders treatment, behavioral medicine, and neuropsychological assessment. Our faculty represent a broad range of theoretical orientations and clinical and research backgrounds. Bios are included in our online brochure.
Interns may also apply to any of our 7 in-house research and 18 clinical postdoctoral fellowships allowing for multiple years of training at SFVAHCS.
Application ratings are based on the applicant's academic work and accomplishments, breadth and quality of previous clinical training (minimum of 1000 hours of practicum required), understanding and skills in psychological assessment, match between our training program and the applicant's needs and interests, letters of recommendation, personal qualities of the applicant (maturity, ethics, responsibility, self-awareness) and organization and clarity of written material. Ultimately, our selection criteria are based on a "goodness–of–fit" and we look for interns whose interests and training goals match the training that we offer.
Please see our Doctoral Internship Brochure for more information: https://www.sanfrancisco.va.gov/education/psychologytraining.asp